Self-defense is at the heart of the training that is offered at The Napping Cat.

Getting home safe, that’s what we all want. The one thing that was emphasized by my teacher, Sensei Moody was that we must make ourselves defendable. I used to think that meant becoming stronger, faster. So I worked to train my body to become stronger and more agile. But in time I learned that I needed to work on the way I looked at life and the world around me.

To borrow a movie line “Luke, you got to get your mind right”. If you feel guilt , less than you “should be” or shame ,it’s hard to stop people from misusing you. If you feel like “you deserve this punishment” you can’t protect yourself.

So training over time teaches us that it’s 90% mental and 10% physical. Even when we spend all off our time marching up and down the mat, hours in front of the mirror so we can perfect our movements.

And after time I had small moments of “so that’s what he means” and Sensei would say that you need to wear down your ego, so that you can grow and learn new things. Our Minds are like “the drunken monkey”, busy, loud and unfocused. By working up a good sweat to the point of collapse, we keep going. This is the 1st step in mental training. This is the beginning of learning to focus our mind and will. We find out that we are more then we realize. If you are strong and fit at the start of your training we wear you down, to the point of dropping. You learn that it is your Will that keeps you going, what makes you strong. Who is stronger, someone that needs a wheel chair and an air tank or the gold medal winner. Who has the stronger Sprit? Hard training over time shows the student that they are more then they realized.

Training takes the ego and deflates it and compress the Ego till it’s small and hard, till the change into a crystal is completed. And this is where you get your strength, your Focus and Will.

We all have this strength, if we go to work a job that we dislike, below our skill set, or a boss that belittles us. We have all been there. We work these jobs because we have to. We all need a home, food and a safe place for our family. That’s why we put up with this stuff.

But we need to recognize that this is an act of courage, not surrender. Facing an attacker may be easier then facing Monday morning.

Training can teach us that we do have the courage to live our lives.

We all have the potential to touch the stars. We just get sidetracked, it’s easy to do just enough so that we have time for fun. In the modern world, too often people are looking for a pay off or pay back.

We need to ask ourselves, am I being the best I can be? Is there more to my life then just getting by? We need to be able to ask the right questions. It’s not always the answer that is important but rather what we ask ourselves.